Adding Targeting Options

To view the the previous step in Creating a New Facebook Campaign, click here.

In addition to Targeting Sources, there are other restrictions you may put on the campaign’s audiences (i.e. locations, demographics).

These restrictions can be defined under the "Targeting Options" section. Click "Targeting Options" to expand this form and enter the desired information.

**NOTE: Any information specified under Targeting Options will be included in the entire campaign and set at the ad set level. These options will not create different ad sets but will be included in EVERY ad set. The options are:

Placement (where the ad will be displayed)

Choose a “Device Platform” (A) - you can choose one of these or the other, or BOTH:

Desktop

Mobile

Choose a ”Publisher Platform” (B) - you can choose up to all 3

Instagram (you must include “Mobile” as a Device Platform if you choose this option since Instagram only offers ads on Mobile devices)

Facebook

Audience Network - this allows Facebook ads to be displayed on pages outside of Facebook, but within their network.

Choose ”Facebook Positions” (C) - if you are publishing the campaign on Facebook, you must choose where on Facebook the ad will be published. You may choose more than one option from the followings:

Feed - the ad will appear as a sponsored post in the user’s news feed

Right Hand Column - the ad will appear on the top righthand side of the news feed, but not as a post within the news feed

”Instagram Account” (D) - this field will only appear If you choose Instagram as a Publisher Platform. You may choose an Instagram Account to be associated with the campaign. That Instagram account will be linked to from the ad. If you do not enter an Instagram account, the Facebook page you enter in the creative section will be associated with the Instagram ad, but it will not be linked to on the ad itself.

Locations (targets users that are in specific locations)

If you choose overlapping locations, you will get an error message (this includes overlapping locations of different types. For example, if you enter “United States” as a country to target and “California” as a state to target, you will get the Overlapping Geo Locations error since California is in the United States). Locations are not required and will default to all of the United States if not entered. The options for locations are as follows:

”Addresses” (1)

Enter as many as you want by typing in the address and hitting “return”

Choose the radius to target from that address (ex. 50 miles from 8548 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA) - Minimum radius is 10 and maximum is 50 (defaults to 50)

”Zips” (2) - you can add multiple zip codes at a time by clicking “Batch” and entering in a list of zip codes separated by commas, spaces OR line breaks.

”Cities” (3) - type in the name of the city. After a few seconds, the city will appear in a drop down. Choose the city you wish to target.

If you wish to add multiple cities at once, click the “Batch” button underneath the cities field. Copy the cities you wish to add from a list (separated by line breaks) and past them in the field. Hit “enter” to add the list.

Choose the radius to target from that city (ex. 50 miles from Los Angeles, CA) - Minimum radius is 10 and maximum is 50 (defaults to 50)

”DMAs” (Designated Market Area) (4) - these are geographical regions created by Nielsen decades ago for advertising purposes. Type the region and choose the correct one from the drop down.

”States” (5) - Enter the name of the state state and choose it from the drop down.

Make sure to type the FULL name as opposed to the 2 letter abbreviation.

You may enter more than one, even though there is no batch option.

”Countries” (6) - enter the name of the country and choose the correct one from the drop down. You may enter more than one, even though there is no batch option.

”Location type” (7)

People who live in this location

ex. If you choose this option with “Los Angeles” as the city, the campaign will target people who report to Facebook that they LIVE in Los Angeles

People recently in this location

ex. If you choose this option with “Los Angeles” as the city, the campaign will target people recently in Los Angeles, as tracked by their mobile device GPS

People traveling in this location

**Note: if you choose this option, you cannot chose either of the other two options

ex. If you choose this option with “Los Angeles” as the city, the campaign will target people recently in Los Angeles (as tracked by their mobile device) and who ALSO live more than 100 miles away.

Locations to Exclude - This form works almost exactly like the “Locations” form, except any location entered will be excluded from the targeting. Click the arrow on the lefthand side to expand the form.

Ex. if “California” is targeted as a state and “Culver City” is excluded as a city, the campaign will target users in California that are NOT in Culver City

Demographics - have your campaign target only people that fit certain demographics. The main options are:

”Minimum Age” (A)

13 is the youngest Facebook allows ads to target. If no minimum age is specified, the minimum age will default to 18.

”Maximum Age” (B)

65 is the oldest Facebook allows.If no maximum age is specified, will default to 65.

”Gender” (C)

Male, Female and All are the only options.Defaults to “All” if no gender is specified.

”Language” (D)

Enter the language, wait for the drop down to load and choose the correct option. You may choose up to 50.

“+ Narrow Audience” (E) - click this button on the bottom right of the Demographics section to get access to the “More Demographics” options. Depending on which options you choose, additional fields will show up. The fields are optional, but you may choose more than one option.

The “More Demographics” section can be used to target very specific users. If this section is filled out, users will only be targeted if they satisfy at least one of these categories. The difference between targeting users in this form versus the “Targeting Sources” form is that Targeting Sources will generate a different ad set for every source whereas “More Demographics” will be added to every ad set (and will be REQUIRED for every ad set - meaning users will not be targeted unless they fulfill at least one of the “More Demographics” categories).

If you want users to be targeted based on fulfilling multiple requirements, click the “+ Narrow Audience” button again. Only users who satisfy BOTH audience requirements will be targeted. Here is an example of the “More Demographics” form filled out properly:

(In this example, the campaigns will target Millennials who work in Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Media OR users who are interested in Baseball and work in Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Media.)

Options for “More Demographics” are:

Interests

Interests you enter here will be added to EVERY ad set, regardless of what you enter into core interests in the fields above.

Behaviors

These include past actions or purchase behavior (ex. You can target someone that purchased Cycling accessories in the past)

Schools

Enter the name of the school and choose the correct one from the drop down menu (this field is not exclusive to Universities. It includes high schools, trade schools, etc.)

Fields of Study

Enter the field of study and choose the correct one from the drop down. You may choose up to 200.

College Graduation Years

You may choose as many as you need. You must enter EVERY year you want targeted. If you choose 1982 and 1986, you will ONLY target users who graduated school in 1982 and 1986. You will NOT target the years in between unless you add those years in this field as well.

Work Places

Target users who only work at SPECIFIC companies by entering the name of the company and choosing the correct company in the drop down. You may choose up to 200.

Work Positions

You may add as many as you need.Make sure to enter any overlapping titles. For example, if you want to target “software engineers,” it would be helpful to target “web developers” and “programmers” as well.

For any of these demographic categories, click the “+” next to the field that shows up. The options for that demographic will show up in a drop down. You may add as many as you’d like for each demographic.

Exclusions

These fields work exactly like “More Demographics”, except they will be excluded from targeting instead of included. Click the “+” on the righthand side of the form (1) to add demographics to exclude. You may add as many as you want. Each time you add a demographic, a field will show up for you to fill out details (2).

Custom Audiences

“Custom Audiences to include” (A) - when you add custom audiences in this section, the audiences will be included on EVERY ad set. Alternatively, if you choose a custom audience as a Targeting Source (documented above in the “Targeting Sources” section), it will create an entirely separate ad set for that Custom Audience.

“Custom Audiences to exclude” (B) - these custom audiences will be excluded from every ad set.

Mobile OS- choose an operating system to target from among OS and Android options.

Connections (You must get the client to give your social account access to their page in order to add Connections to that page).

Just like with Custom Audiences, the difference between adding connections in this section as opposed to as a Targeting Source is that connections in this section will be included on every ad set in the campaign (whereas connections added as a Targeting Source will generate a new ad set for each connection targeted).

”Connections to include” (1) - target users that have liked, commented on or otherwise interacted with a certain page.

”Connections to exclude” (2) - exclude users who have a connection to a certain page (for ex. If you’re running a campaign to raise awareness of a film it would make sense to exclude users that already “like” the film’s Facebook page)

“Target users whose friends are connected to” (3) - this works just like “Connections to include”, except it will target friends of users that are connected to the page instead of users themselves.

To view the next step in Creating a New Facebook Campaign, click here.